Australian site Mr Toys has a page up for the upcoming 6873 Spider-man’s™ Doc Oc™ Ambush. It includes Spider-Man, Doc Ock, and Iron Fist minifigures, which were revealed already in the back of the Marvel set instruction booklets.

The box says Ultimate Spiderman, so it's based on that rather than a movie tie-in. It's listed at 69.99 AUS, so I'd expect $40-50. It's slated for an August release.

It's based on the new Ultimate Spider-man cartoon, which is loosely based on the comic. I can't stand the comic, but I pretty much love cartoons in general and it looks like a classic Spidey suit so I'm all over it!

'Resistance is Futile. We will add your Bricks and Minifigures to our own. Your Bothans will adapt to service us." "I AM the Law!" >> [email protected] <<

I'm the same way, but this show... there's something about it that bugs (snrk) me. Maybe it's the frequent fourth wall breaks and non-sequiturs, maybe it's the fact that the writing feels very typical of Disney shows in a highschool setting with Peter, maybe it's the fact that they went with the "action grandma" archetype for Aunt May... or maybe I'm just still bitter that the aptly named Spectacular Spiderman got cancelled prematurely and was replaced with this...

Anyway, this set look so... generic and boring. It reminds me of the recent Batcave or Echo Base, how the only thing that really makes it feel "Spiderman" is the minifigs. Then again, it might perfectly capture a scene that I haven't seen from the cartoon which is really just another knock against the show.

Haven't seen the show yet as it's not on any channel I have access to, but I'm sure Disney X D Canada will pick it up soon. I'll reserve judgement until then. Ah Spectacular Spider-man, I'll admit I enjoyed the show but it lacked a lot of the humour that is usually prevalent in Marvel's comics and cartoons and the characters mostly felt flat to me. None of that really matters though because it was my son's first Spidey cartoon, so it will always be looked on with nostalgia.

As for breaking the forth wall, Spidey has done it many times in the comics and his internal narrative has been a huge part of almost every cartoon, so it's not unexpected. When it works (Ferris Bueller, Deadpool) it works, so I'm interested to see how they go about it.

'Resistance is Futile. We will add your Bricks and Minifigures to our own. Your Bothans will adapt to service us." "I AM the Law!" >> [email protected] <<

Robzula is right. I was so excited to finally see this set, and then it turns out to be a generic mad scientist's lab with some Spider-Man characters thrown in. Oh well. We can only hope this is preliminary....yeah, right

Ugh, waste of a set. Spiderman's always been one of the lamest of Marvel's flagship heroes and this fragmented laboratory is a sad callback to the elder days of the Spiderman license. Still no set with Nick Fury, but more Spidey. Sigh.

Darth Caedus wrote:Ugh, waste of a set. Spiderman's always been one of the lamest of Marvel's flagship heroes

ಠ_ಠ

Explain.

The very conceit of his powers is gimmicky and based mostly on swinging around like Tarzan, he's a perpetual fountain of Wangst over dull-as-dirt MJ, and the modern film representation has been diluted with goofy antics and a bland lead (Andrew Garfield replaces Tobey Maguire as Generic White Guy #3098). He has a good Rogues' Gallery, true, but even they've been mishandled of late (dull Ock in Spidey 2, overstuffing in Spidey 3, unthreatening Lizard in the upcoming Amazing Spidey). Could have had an X-Men set - way more potential there.

First off, Andrew Garfield is an absolutely incredible actor who I'm sure will be much more than a bland face in the upcoming movie. I saw him recently as Biff in the Death of a Salesman revival, and he was completely exhilarating in the role.

Second, it's worth keeping in mind the time of his creation- he debuts firmly in the Silver Age, so what might come across as 'gimmicky' now was more par for the course at the time. And even if he's been mishandled as of late, it doesn't change the fact that he drastically changed the norms for what a superhero was and could be when he was introduced, and the series over the years has made significant steps forward for the comics industry in general (Gwen Stacy, anyone?). I'd also dispute the notion of Ock being dull in Spiderman 2, but it's been a while since I've seen the film, so my memory might be fuzzy (if it serves right, though, they turned a one-note character into a full-fledged antagonist with motivation and empathy, so I'm not sure how that translates to 'dull').

joecrowaz on Flickr wrote:Flynn you little wussy with a purple robed fairy for an icon,

Should have been Donald Glover in the role - now there's an actor with flawless comedic timing and a leading man's charisma. Alfred Molina is also an incredible actor, but he was wasted as Ock, whose motivation was essentially "SCIENCE!!!" and then just sulked around smashing stuff and planning the apocalypse until he decided that was uncool. He plays a much more nuanced antagonist in Chocolat, and honestly his brief turn in Raiders of the Lost Ark is more memorable.

I haven't seen Garfield in DOAS, but there's hardly anything in that sordid Miller tragedy that I'd call exhilarating Willy Loman, such an amateur.

is the death of his wife and the damage the machine accident did to the AI control on the arms, allowing them to take control of his own judgement and impulses. It builds on the same theme of opposing personalities that characterized Osbourne in the first movie, but also adds a tragic twinge to it, as well as a chance for redemption towards the end.

And you haven't lived until you've seen Philip Seymour Hoffman and Andrew Garfield inches away from each other, screaming to the point of tears during a cathartic moment of anger, disappointment, love, and hope. That's my idea of exhilarating.

joecrowaz on Flickr wrote:Flynn you little wussy with a purple robed fairy for an icon,

The maliciousness of the AI in the arms feels cheap and leans on a simplistic technophobia that so many writers fall back on these days - it's hard for us to understand the cold inhumanity of zeroes and ones, of metal and wheels, so our gut reaction is to fear it and infer a dark, destructive intent. It works in the Terminator franchise since that's more about the hunt and the aesthetic - and outside of the first film the emphasis is on the capacity for machines to learn and respect life. For Ock though, his arms transform him into a loose cannon because, "SCIENCE!!!!"